Elsewhere, ready to push boundaries

Elsewhere is perhaps the most outspoken and bold women's brand of the moment. Not only in terms of style, but also in its way of working. The label does everything in-house. Also noteworthy is the steady customer base with fans who look forward to each new collection longingly. "Our base is indeed excellent," smiles owner Matthew Thoonen. "That's why this is the perfect time to push our boundaries."

Unique location and showroom

Just the drive to the stately Betuwe farmstead in The Netherlands, beautifully situated on the Waal river and floodplains, is worth it. This is the creative heart of Elsewhere. This is where designer Anne Habers and her team of pattern drawers and seamstresses work on the development of her surprising collections. The advantage of having everything in one place is being able to switch quickly: everything from design to garment can be done here within a few days. Other brands take weeks to complete this process. The tastefully furnished showroom, where customers are received with all possible courtesy, is also located in the building. All in all, a particularly inspiring and creative place.

Steady Business

Elsewhere was founded in 2003. The brand formula was: design quirky clothing, collect orders in advance and then produce and deliver them. "That's how it went for almost twenty years," Matthew explains. "Elsewhere was a steady business with a regular following and points of sale in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Ireland and Austria. I myself worked at a fashion company producing for other brands for many years before taking over Elsewhere. The pandemic gave us the push we needed to get started. Last June, the sale was completed."

Elsewhere's growth ambition

The plan was to roll out Elsewhere in multiple countries as quickly as possible, and to develop online operations. "We used the lockdown period to set up an international web shop," Matthew says. "It went live in January and has been performing well from the start. It helps, of course, that Elsewhere is already a well-known name. Furthermore, the number of points of sale is slowly but surely increasing. We had one hundred and twenty points of sale, we are now at around two hundred and we hope to reach three hundred in a year's time. Meanwhile, Elsewhere is also sold in the United States, Norway, France and Switzerland. We are actively looking for new agents, especially in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia. We think our outspoken designs stand out there and we see that there is a lot of demand for them."

The collections

Elsewhere comes out with an average of two collections a year, an SS and an FW collection. "Since last year, we have had two small in-between collections in addition to that," says Matthew. "The large collections are delivered at multiple times. The advantage is that this gives our customers more variation in store and they don't have to invest in everything at once." Other new developments include broadening the target market and adding a larger size. "Our clothing is highly sought after by middle-aged women with bold taste. We think Elsewhere now also appeals to their daughters... We're going to focus on that as well. And as for the sizing, it already ran from S to XXL. But in the new collections we will add an XXXL, if the designs and materials allow it. Our clothes look just as beautiful on a slim woman as on a full-figured woman."